In the production of semiconductor devices, to inspect in each process whether or not a pattern formed on a substrate has been formed in conformity with a design thereof, there has been heretofore broadly employed a CD-SEM or the like.
As a method to inspect the finish of a wiring pattern, there has been proposed, for example, an evaluation method in which distance between output data from a Computer Aided Design (CAD) and pattern data of a pattern measured by an SEM is measured to evaluate a contour of the pattern based on the measured distance ([Patent Literature 1]).
In addition, as a method to remarkably shorten the inspection time, there has been proposed an inspection method in which by setting, in a design pattern, a beltlike inspection region sandwiched between an outer peripheral obtained by adding an allowable value and an inner peripheral obtained by subtracting an allowable value, if coordinates of a contour of a pattern image produced by imaging a pattern as an inspection object are outside the inspection region, a defect is determined ([Patent Literature 2]).
Moreover, there has been proposed an inspection method in which tolerance data indicating a tolerance based on a design pattern and contour data of a contour of a pattern image produced by imaging a pattern as an inspection object are converted into polar coordinates to judge a defect according to presence or absence of a crossing point in the polar coordinates ([Patent Literature 3]).